A celebration of a nation’s maritime heritage

A major new cultural landmark for China takes its place on the global stage

Photography: Terrence Zhang

Syphonic drainage is built literally into the ‘skin’ of the building to capture grey water for future use on site in the dry months, and high efficiency solar panels act as a ‘solar farm’

China’s first National Maritime Museum has now commenced formal operation, the culmination of a six-year process which began with an international design competition, followed by an intensive design and construction process.

The Museum has a distinctive form which reaches out into the bay from a large waterfront parkland, behind which a new city district of Tianjin, called the Binhai New Area is currently being developed.

It is a landmark project comprising four wings, focusing on the themes of ‘the ancient ocean’, ‘ocean today’, ‘journey of discovery’ and ‘the age of the dragon’. The three-storey museum covers 80,000 sq-m, contains six display areas and 15 interconnected exhibition halls.

Cox Architecture was awarded the project in 2013 after winning an eight-month iterative design competition process involving multiple stages of client and stakeholder feedback. The building comprises a series of interconnected pavilions that cantilever out over the water in a fan-like formation from a central reception hall. This central space is both for transition and exhibition and provides access to the upper of the two exhibition levels. On the lower level, stores for non-exhibited collections are co-located on-site to enable artefacts to be easily distributed to each of the adjacent exhibition spaces. From Cox Architecture founding partner Philip Cox’s initial watercolour sketches, the design evolved and certain compelling metaphors either resolved or emerged — jumping carp, corals, starfish, moored ships in port and an open palm reaching out from China to the maritime world. Without resorting to literal mimicry, some are more obviously expressed, such as in the geometric pattern and textures of the cladding, also functionally designed to shed heavy snow loads during harsh winters typical in this part of China.

The articulated pavilions provide a constant connection between inside and out. The user experience exists within the landscape and is a key organising device of the plan, helping to orientate visitors on their journey experience. During development of the design, both physical and digital modelling was carried out to test the building structure and many of the key details of the design. This approach greatly improved the quality of outcomes and assisted communication beyond any language barriers.

Due to the curved design of the walls and ceiling, both had to be built to meet the highest grade in fire rating to meet China’s building codes

17,000 tonnes of steel were used for the primary structure alone, not including the secondary structure, and the largest structural cantilever is almost 42 metres in length

The process was innovative — especially for a project of this size, scale, complexity and location — in its deployment of parametric computer modelling that allowed both scale and detail to be resolved concurrently. Physical models focused on human scale and interaction while complex geometric algorithms resolved the doubly curved building ‘shell’ and its related cladding system.

Energy for the building is predominantly sourced via geothermal, being drawn from 100 metres below the building.

“The National Maritime Museum of China is justified in its ‘landmark’ status,” says Brendan Gaffney, national director for Cox, based in Brisbane, Australia. “It is a remarkable building borne of a remarkable process. It is a project that’s totally at home on the global stage. It is testament to the commitment of our open-minded and collaborative client and to our team, whose talent and tenacity in equal measure ensured this building stayed true to its vision in every possible detail.” Project: China National Maritime Museum Location: Binhai New Area, Tianjin, China Client: National Maritime Museum Preparatory Office Chinese Government and Tianjin Municipality Design: Cox Architecture | www.coxarchitecture.com.au Local design institute partner: Tianjin Architecture and Design Institute Key consultants: Arup, Lord Cultural Resources, Urbantect Project size: 80,000 sq-m Project area: 150,000 sq-m